Apr 27, 2019
4 min read
EA Certification Study Guide Part 2: Dashboard Design
The notes for this portion of the study guide are light because this part of the exam is mostly going to be scenario based questions around best practices. I recommend focusing on the Salesforce provided materials to make sure you understand the design standards that Salesforce suggests.
Sources:
- Trailhead Badges
-*Analytics App Design
-Quick Start: Einstein Analytics
-Analytics Basics
-Analytics Dashboard Building Basics
-Analytics App Basics
-Analytics App Template Development - Learning Map
-Build Interaction Dashboards Video Series - Documentation in Exam Guide
-Analytics Lookbook
-*Best Practices for Building Your Own Analytics Dashboard - Einstein Analytics Training Videos
-Video 5 and 6: Designing Dashboards
-Video 14: Analytics Apps - External Resources
-3 Ways to Go Above and Beyond with Analytics
-Einstein Analytics vs. Operational Reporting — What’s the Difference?
-Einstein Analytics: Design & Interaction Principles
-Collection of articles on dashboard design (read through a couple that look interesting to you)
*If you are short on time, focus on these.
Notes:
As always, I recommend you read/watch each of the sources and take your own notes. My summaries below are not inclusive of what will appear on the exam.
Gathering A Customer’s Dashboard Requirements
- Make these decisions before building apps
— Determine the app’s audience and purpose
— Think through the app’s structure: what content are you going to show and how to organize it into a logical flow?
— Choose the correct surface elements: signals/aesthetic choices/visual elements - How Salesforce suggests you gather requirements
— Gather 4–8 stakeholders in a 60–90 min session and start by establishing the purpose of the dashboard: who is going to view it, what do they need
— Have each participant sketch out one or more ideas for the dashboard then present to the group
— As a group, discuss and sort the sketches then prioritize them based on relevance to the original dashboard purpose
— Use the top ideas to start building out your dashboard — always sketch out a build plan before starting
UX Design and Einstein Best Practices
Designing the Dashboard
- Design principles
— Clarity: eliminate ambiguity from your dashboard
— Efficiency: Streamline and optimize workflows
— Consistency: Use the same names and similar graphic elements for similar data points
— Beauty: Fluid experiences that feel natural - “Deep” Design Thinking
— Surface level: Colors, fonts, graphics, etc.
— Structure: Scope, layout, flow or the dashboard
— Purpose: What is the user’s intentions and goals when using the dashboard - Structuring an App’s Content — Choose a focus
— Priority: Some common dashboard formats are an F, Z, or side-by-side pattern. Suggestion of top left to bottom right in most cases
— Logic: Take users through a logical flow
— Level of granularity: Start with high-level details before getting specific
— Similarity: Group like elements together - Design Best Practices
— Place high level, actionable widgets near the top left
— Group filters together at the top or left
— Develop in a way that invites users to continually drill down
— Choose chart types for function, not variety
— Don’t clutter the dashboard, leave some empty space
Einstein Best Practices
- Process for developing apps in Einstein
— Start by loading data into datasets and ensure it is in a format that works well
— Create a series of lenses and explorations
— Save sets of these explorations into dashboards
— Save sets of dashboards into an app - Building in Einstein
— Use charts to visualize your data quickly and provide summaries and tables for a close up, detailed view
— Utilize pages to allow users to digest content in chunks and create dynamic pathways through the dashboard
— Embed the dashboards where the users work throughout Salesforce: home screen, Account page, Case details, etc.
— Always optimize your dashboards for mobile
— Make sure you turn on the action framework where possible
— Use containers and colors to guide the user through the visuals
— Make dashboards and layouts consistent
Using Template Apps
- Use pre-built templates from Salesforce inside Einstein to speed up development.
— Dashboard templates: Pre-built dashboard layouts to help with a quicker design. Simply place your lenses into the provided chart and table widgets. “Smart” templates provided will take you through a wizard to fill out the dashboard
— App templates: Series of lenses and dashboards that are generated after going through a wizard inside Einstein. - How to iterate on a pre-built App template:
— Install with the basic settings first and investigate what it does
— Reinstall (“reconfigure” in the app details) it with custom settings
— Get feedback from users and customize more on your team’s needs
— Add and change functionality over time - Salesforce provide many different types of out-of-the-box templates for example: Sales, Service, Financial, Event Monitoring, Analytics Adoption etc.
— Can also pre-package and build your own templated apps to distribute to customers
Next: Einstein Discovery
